Matters Microbial #120: Bacterial Interactions among Oral Microbes December 29, 2025

For Episode 120, we welcome Dr. Batbileg Bor, Associate Professor at the ADA Forsyth Institute, to the #QualityQuorum. He joins us to discuss some of the oral community's most enigmatic members: microbes that dwell on other microbes and potentially influence our own health.

Host: Mark O. Martin

Guest: Batbileg Bor

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Links for this episode

• Here is a fun video about #LuxArt that Dr. Jennifer Quinn and I made for Harvard University's Microbial Sciences Initiative in 2024.
• Here is a wonderful essay about Dr. Rita Colwell. Here is a link to her fascinating book about her life.
• A blog overview of the amazing Deinococcus radiodurans.
• A fine article about the "artwork" that Paenibacillus creates when it forms colonies.
• Here is the video that two of my #Bio350 #Micronauts made…a parody of Vanilla Ice's "Ice, Ice, Baby" but about microbiology.
• Here is a link to the #MattersMicrobial podcast involving the fascinating work of Dr. Jessica Mark Welch on the oral microbiome.
• A review article on predatory bacteria.
• An overview of the CPR (Candidate Phyla Radiation), both prominent and mysterious.
• A recent article by Dr. Bor and colleagues describing the "microbial dark matter" seemingly everwhere…even in the human mouth.
• An introductory profile on TM7, Saccharibacteria.
• A solid early review of TM7, by Dr. Bor and colleagues.
• Dr. Bor and colleagues' early article about TM7, discussed in today's podcast.
• Dr. Bor and colleagues' article describing interesting interactions between the epibiont and the basibiont, described in today's podcast. Here is a related article.
• An article by Dr. Bor and colleagues describing the two Type IV pili systems of Saccharibacteria.
• A fascinating article by Dr. Bor and colleagues describing how TM7 can modulate the responses of animals in different ways, discussed on the podcast.
• Dr. Bor's LinkedIn profile.
• Dr. Bor's faculty page at the ADA Forsyth Institute.
• Dr. Bor's laboratory website with fabulous images to enjoy.

Intro music is by Reber Clark

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